Abu Dhabi GP: Preview - Williams

NEWS STORY31/10/2012

Pastor Maldonado: Although a reasonably new circuit Abu Dhabi has become one of my favourites because the city is spectacular and the people always seem very friendly. The race throws up some unique challenges because we start off driving in hot daytime conditions, but then the sun goes down and the temperature drops quickly. You therefore have to find a set up that balances these different conditions. The track also changes a lot each day and there is quite a lot of sand on the track surface which you have to deal with.

Bruno Senna: Abu Dhabi could be an interesting track for us. It has a large number of slow corners which has not traditionally suited our car, but it is also hard on brakes and that is an area where our car has been very strong all year. We have had a lot of updates to the car recently so hopefully we can have one of those trouble free weekends where everything comes together and we can be competitive.

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: The Yas Marina Circuit layout of long straights and relatively tight corners puts a lot of energy into the brake system and with reasonably high ambient temperatures the general car cooling has to be run relatively open too. As per last year Pirelli bring their medium and soft tyres to this race and from an aerodynamics perspective the car will be set in medium to high efficiency trim.